Web cheats who illegally download music, TV or films will be banned from using the internet under ambitious plans by the French goverment.

Offenders will be sent three warning notices before having their connection cut off, lawmakers have announced.

The legislation is geared at reducing illegal downloads and boosting entertainment industry profits.

The law would establish the world’s first government agency to track and punish those who steal music and film on the Internet.

“It’s absolutely innovative,” said Professor Pierre-Yves Gautier, an Internet law expert at the Universite Pantheon-Assas in Paris.Critics say it will be too tough to apply and encroaches on freedoms.

Under the legislation, users would receive email warnings for their first two identified offences.

A certified letter would then be sent before Web connection is cut.

Music labels, film distributors and artists – who have seen CD and DVD sales in France plummet 60 percent in the past six years – support the law.

But some French activists and legislators say the law represents a Big Brother intrusion on civil liberties.

Opponents in the National Assembly have called it “liberticide.”

“It will, in any case, be completely impossible to apply,” said Jeremie Zimmerman, coordinator of the Quadrature du Net, a Paris-based Internet activist group.

“It is a bad response to a false problem.”

French Culture Minister Christine Albanel has said the law “doesn’t aim to completely eradicate” illegal downloads.

It rather hopes to “contribute to a raising of consciousness” among offenders.

Supporters have cited studies claiming that 90 percent of offenders would cease their illegal activity after the second notice.

They also say a cancelled Internet connection, unlike a fine, would affect all users equally, be they rich or poor.

“There needs to be an experiment,” said Mr Gautier, the Internet law expert, noting plummeting entertainment industry profits. “Frankly, it’s worth it.”